While there are some areas of a person's body where it is desired to permanently remove hair, for example facial or leg hair on a woman, frequently, for the hair indicated above as well as for undesired hair on other parts on both a man's and a woman's body, a lower level of hair growth management may be all that is desired. Hair growth management may involve temporary, for example for several weeks, or permanent cessation of hair growth; temporarily or permanently changing, either increasing or decreasing, the hair growth rate; and/or temporarily or permanently changing selected characteristics of the hair shaft including, but not limited to, changing hair shaft diameter, shape, pigmentation, and mechanical properties such as elasticity and bend/curl. Hair growth management may involve removal of the hair shaft, destruction of the hair shaft, and/or changes in the hair follicle structure. Most current techniques for hair management are techniques for hair removal by applying radiation to the patient's skin, generally optical radiation, in relatively high radiation doses sufficient to denature protein tissue of the hair follicle, and thus to generally cause necrosis of the follicle. The energy applied in such techniques also generally results in immediate destruction or significant alterations of the hair shaft. However, the application of such high energy to a patient's skin can also cause damage to the patient's epidermis, particularly for darker skinned individuals, can in some instances cause dermal damage or scarring and, even with protective procedures such as cooling of the skin before and during treatment, can result in various levels of discomfort and pain to the patient being treated. This has resulted in a requirement that such procedures be performed by a dermatologist or other qualified physician, or at least under the supervision of such a physician. The high power/energy devices used for performing such procedures are also relatively expensive. The combination of relatively expensive equipment with the need for the procedures to be performed by high priced, highly trained personnel has resulted in such hair removal procedures being relatively expensive, significantly limiting the availability of such procedures to the public, and such availability has been further limited by difficulties in treating dark skinned individuals.
A need therefore exists for procedures to manage hair growth for a selected time periods, for example several days to a month for facial hair (men's beard), and several weeks or more (for example, months) for other body areas, which can safely be performed on individuals with all types of skin, and which is sufficiently low powered and safe so that it can be performed by non-medical personnel, for example barbers, beauticians and spa operators, or even in the home by the person on whom the procedure is being performed. Such procedures should result in little or no pain or discomfort to the person on whom the treatment is being performed, should result in no visible alteration to such person's skin or other side effects, should be very low cost for a single treatment and should be repeatable at selected intervals to achieve a desired level of hair growth management. A technique for achieving these objectives does not currently exist.